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Our Ocean in Revery and Neglect

by

Fabien Cousteau

This month has been both a special time for our planet's ocean and
one of great distress. June 7th kicked off a week full of events,
celebrating Capital Hill Ocean Week, World Ocean Day (June 8th) and my
grandfather's 100th birthday commemoration dive, end-capping the week on
June 11th. Throughout the week, the beauty, majesty and fragility of
our water world were center pieces of discussions and of revery.

During our June 11th dive on the "Grand Canglouer" (location of my
grandfather's first expedition in the early 50s) off Marseille, my
father Jean-Michel, sister Celine, and I, were honored to be submerged
with some of the original crew of Calypso such as our dear friend,
Albert Falco. Not only was this an extraordinary moment for us as a
family, but also one that was an intimate communion with the "undersea
world".

Churning in the water column, resembling a giant ink cloud from a
gigantic octopus, a dark shroud has enveloped our aquatic arena since
April 20th, 2010 and its vision has become all too familiar, thanks to
hundreds of Web sites and blogs showing the live feed. The Gulf oil
spill, a catastrophe of epic proportions, has commanded the world's
attention for 62+ days straight now. Not only has the sea-floor-gusher
not been halted, the current flow estimates are a phenomenal 60,000 barrels of crude spewing freely into the Gulf
every 24-hours. Now that's daunting.

People are frightened, angry, frustrated and feel helpless in the
face of such a monstrous disaster. Confronting such stress, mud slinging
and finger pointing seems commonplace. Although there is a significant
list of people who should be held accountable, the danger is that we are
getting distracted from actually fixing the problem first. The longer
we stumble upon ourselves and argue, the worse the long-term impact on
our environment and on our future will be.

Aside from actually "plugging the hole," a huge long-term cleanup
effort is mandatory. And no, chemical dispersants are not the answer. We
must roll up our sleeves and mop up the mess before it suffocates and
poisons not only the whole of the Gulf Coast, but the Caribbean, the
North American Atlantic Coast and eventually Western European shores.

There are responders from Government, NGOs, private sectors, and the
public, who are pitching in to help with clean up efforts. While their
significant efforts are most definitely helping, the scale of the spill
requires a ten-fold increase if we are to fathom a brighter future.

Adoption of new technologies such as EcoSphere's filtration units can
be a great asset to help eliminate the oil from the water column with
the least negative impact. Documenting the effects of BP crude on
aquatic and avian wildlife (the Ocean Futures team has been filming in
the Gulf since April) is also paramount to informing the public about
any progress and as a basis for future restoration efforts (such as with
the Plant A Fish initiatives). And while there are many people wanting
to volunteer to help clean up animals and beaches alike, unfortunately
there is still a huge lack of training facilities to enlist these
could-be responders.

With almost 9,000 oil and gas platforms surrounding U.S. coastal
waters, it's not a matter of if this happens again but when.

We must end our 100-year-old addiction to fossil fuels.

One thing is for sure, we will be dealing with the consequences of
the BP Gulf oil spill for decades to come. How long we will be dealing
with those consequences is dependent on what we can accomplish now, not
what we will do tomorrow. Nature will recover from our abuse,
eventually. It is up to us if we want to recover with her or be
relegated to a footnote in her history.

Even though the environmental and economic challenges we are facing
are of monumental proportions, human beings are capable of creating
miracles when pressed for them. We know what we need to do.

Now, it's a matter of learning to live with the planet rather than
living on it.

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Fabien Cousteau is a 3rd Generation Ocean Explorer, Documentary Film Maker and Voice for the Ocean World.

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